The Odd Jobs Racket

The town of Suriad was getting more dangerous by the day.

The reason was obvious: "Odd Jobs" was making it happen, raking in money all the while.

They funneled supplies and sold weapons to criminals who couldn't enter town, let them do their "work," then swooped in from the side to beat them down and take everything.

A self-serving racket that aggressively exploited one simple rule: defeat a bandit, and their belongings go to whoever took them down.

"Isn't that just straight-up aiding and abetting, yo?"

"Oh my. We're just victims who got attacked and had our supplies stolen, you know."

"I see. So you just happened to find money lying on the road and got lucky."

"Ufufu, exactly. Sorry about this, Penpen-chan. The swords you make for me keep getting stolen right back every time I recover them."

We were being made into accomplices here.

Incidentally, what Penpen had made was an item called the "Konnyaku-Slicing Sword."

It looked like a gem-adorned treasure sword that screamed power, but its attack stat was rock-bottom. A total scam weapon that could only cut konnyaku. A practice sword for honing technique; getting smacked with a club would hurt more. If anything, it was an item that undermined the bandits' fighting ability.

… That said, it worked plenty well enough for intimidation.

On top of that, each "Konnyaku-Slicing Sword" had been enchanted with a lost-item tracking spell that displayed its location as a dot on the map, like GPS. Meaning the bandits' hideouts were completely exposed.

"Well, that part's fine and all, but you're also supplying real swords that actually work, right?"

"Of course. It'd be too suspicious with only fake ones."

"That's doing the victims pretty dirty."

"True. I do feel bad about it, so I return half the bandit profits through the Guild."

So the Guild had been bought off. Got it.

"Oho ho. At this rate, it won't be long before this town's crawling with mohawk-and-shoulder-pad types, yo."

"The kind who scatter bills going, 'This ain't even worth wiping your ass with!'"

"Too bad there's no paper money in this world, yo… Oh. By the way, Mahariku-san, where are you keeping all the money you've been raking in, yo?"

"Huh? My current balance shows up in the menu, though?"

So she was hoarding all her currency personally without depositing it anywhere.

With less currency in circulation, doing business was only going to get harder.

"The bandits never seem to run out either, so I should be able to keep this going a while longer."

"That's because the security's… Yeah. My condolences to the people of Suriad, yo."

"If security gets too bad and my favorite ramen shop closes, that'd be a problem, so I'll dial it back a little. Yes."

Man, "Odd Jobs" really was an evil organization. Wouldn't be surprising if someone put a subjugation request on them.

Actually. Yeah, about that.

"Mahariku-san. So, the thing is, we've got a mission that says 'Save Suriad from Crisis.'"

"… Does that mean we're the evil masterminds? Are you here to take us down?"

"Given the situation, we can't really think of another explanation. Well, if there happened to be some boss pulling the bandits' strings, that'd be a different story, but…"

Someone that convenient wouldn't just exist in reality.

In other words, our subjugation target was—

"I know where it is… If it's a mission, then it can't be helped. I'll wrap up my moneymaking and cooperate."

Oh, right. This was a game.

Thank goodness. Didn't seem like it was a "strike down the fallen spirit" type scenario after all.

"Mahariku-san. The chances of defeating that thing being the key to your 'second character' are crazy high, yo?"

"I figured as much. But I wasn't confident I had the combat power to take it on. You know how it is; my squad doesn't have much individual firepower."

"With your skills, Mahariku-san, couldn't you pull it off anyway, yo?"

"… If I were willing to sacrifice someone."

Apparently, she'd been thinking of it as content she'd tackle much later down the line.

Fair enough. Stay in one town long enough and that thing starts looking like the final boss. If we hadn't ventured out to other towns, we'd probably still think the Great Turtle was our destined final boss and keep putting off the fight.

"I'd been thinking of it as an enemy we should defeat on our own, but if you've got a mission for it too, then there's no issue accepting help… To be blunt, if Miitei-chan plays decoy, it's a guaranteed win."

"Of course we'll help."

"That helps. I had a strategy that involved shooting the decoy dead along with the target, but Miitei-chan wouldn't die from that, right?"

As long as her main body was safe, even if a clone got destroyed, it only cost her some body mass. The stats just returned to the main body.

Man, Miitei-chan was just too perfect as a decoy.

Slimes really are the strongest once they've grown, huh.